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Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023 Shelton-Mason County Journal — Page 5
The importance of ballot signatures
n our current election
system, your signature
on your ballot return
envelope is of utmost impor—
tance. Your signature affirms
the declaration printed on
the envelope that under pen-
alty of perjury you meet the
qualifications to vote and you
have not voted in any other
jurisdiction in that election.
The declaration also informs
voters that it is illegal to
vote if they are not a United
FROM THE
States citizen; are incarcer-
ated for a felony conviction;
and that it is illegal to cast
a ballot or sign a ballot dec-
laration on behalf of another
voter. A person willfully
Violating these provisions is
guilty of a class C felony.
When your ballot arrives
LETTERS TO THE
Bay at risk
Editor, the Journal,
I am a newer resident to Mason
County and live nearby Oakland Bay.
Part two of the hearing continued
this last week and I must say, of all
the information Taylor Shellfish Co.
has either presented in its application
for their proposed 50—acre industrial
aquaculture and now production site
in Oakland Bay, to me, is shocking in
the abundance of misinformation and
half—truths, unknowns and incomplete
or minimized information. In my opin—
ion, the lack of facts surrounding the
whole project leaves our community’s
Oakland Bay at even more risk than I
first understood. Please go to the Ma—
son County website and listen to the
hearings decide for yourself.
We all have to agree Oakland Bay’s
ecosystem is still healing from decades
of corporate abuse and privatization of
Oakland Bay in favor of Taylor Shell-
fish would further exploit the natural
resource we all should be able to enjoy
through recreation, its natural beauty
and our shared access to it.
Fu1ther, we learned during the
hearing, should the time come when
Taylor Shellfish determines a sale of
the business is in its best interest, all
of the aquaculture leases they hold
would transfer to the new owner
foreign or domestic. That’s a whole
lot of aquatic real estate in the Puget
Sound that could potentiallybe in the
hands of a stranger.
The folks I have met, who reject the
Taylor proposal for a DNR lease of 50
acres of the deepest water in Oakland
Bay, simply want to protect the ecosys-
tem that exists in the bay so genera—
tions from now, it can still be enjoyed
in its most natural state.We hope you
will send pictures of your special views
of the bay to l.viscusi@masoncounty—
wagov for submission to the hearing
examiner and join us in keeping Oak—
land Bay clear of privatization.
Ginny Douglas
Shelton
Not entitled
Editor, the Journal,
At the heating on Wednesday, Aug.
9, a college girl whose family is em—
ployed there angered me. Calling us
AUDITOR
at the Elections Depart—
ballot received is yours. The
signature on the outside of
the ballot return envelope
is compared with the signa-
ture on file in the voter reg-
istration database for each
voter, and a determination is
made whether the signatures
match. A variation between
the signatures resulting from
the substitution of initials
or the use of a common nick-
name is OK if the surname
and handwriting are clearly
the same. If you are unable
to sign your ballot envelope,
signatures. The answer is,
“N o.”
In situations where sig-
natures do not match, or the
ballot envelope is unsigned,
elections staff immediately
prepare and send letters to
the voter requesting an up—
date to “cure” the mismatch
with a signature that match—
es the one on the envelope.
Additional attempts at voter
follow-up are made by tele-
phone and email. If a voter
does not respond, the ballot
envelope remains unopened,
election posted on the audi-
tor’s website: masoncounty—
waelectionsgov/previous—
elections~results—data.
For your vote to count,
your ballot must pass signa—
ture verification. This is why
it’s a good idea to check your
signature on file in the voter
registration database with a
quick visit to the Vote Cen-
ter. Starting with the N o—
vember 2023 General Elec-
tion, human signature verifi-
cation will be facilitated with
a new ballot envelop scan—
ment, elections staff trained
to state standards examine
your signature on the en—
velope declaration prior to
processing the ballot. It is
the one piece of informa-
tion that verifies that the
you can affirm the envelope
declaration with another
type of mark witnessed and
signed by two other people.
I am often asked, is there a
way to verify the identity of
people who provide witness
the ballot is not counted,
and a determination is made
by the canvassing board
prior to election certification.
You can find statistics for
the number of ballots with
uncured signatures in an
ning and sorting machine.
The process will be more
viewable for election observ-
ers. Hope to see you then.
I Steve Duenkcl is the
Mason County auditor
The Shelton-Mason County Journal encourages
original letters to the editor of local interest. Diverse
and varied opinions are welcome. We will not
publish letters that are deemed libelous or scurrilous
in nature. We reserve the right to reject any letter for
any reason. When submitting a letter, please observe
the following guidelines: Writers are limited to one
original letter plus one rebuttal or counter—rebuttal per
calendar month; letters should be no more than 300
words; letters will be edited for grammar, spelling,
style, clarity and length. Priority will be given to local
opinion and topics. Letters about national politics
and topics will run on a space-available basis; The
Journal Letter Policy
weekly deadline is 5 pm. Monday. Letters received
after that time will run in the following’week’s edition.
All letters must be signed and include the writer’s
name, physical address and daytime phone number,
which will be used for verification purposes only.
To submit a letter, email it to editor@masoncounty.
'com. Please type your letter directly into the email
or attach a Word document. Letters submitted via
external links or cloud drives will not be opened. You
may also drop it off at 227 W. Cota St, or mail it
to PO. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584. Due to time r
constraints, the publication of handwritten or typed
letters may be delayed.
the entitled people because we enjoyed
kayaking and boating in the bay. She
could not do that because of her social
economic status. We all have worked
hard our entire lives. We earned this.
She is way more entitled than I was at
that age. She has a mother and a fa-
ther. My mom raised all five of us girls
by herself with no help from anyone.
She worked as a nurse, picking up any
overtime she could get. I couldn’t go
to college because we couldn’t afford
it, no grants or scholarships. I went to
tech school all day and worked waiting
tables at night. I have been working
since I was 12, working in the fields of
rural Minnesota in the hot sun or cold
rain. There were times I worked three
jobs at once. It took me 45 years to get
here. Just because she doesn’t look
like the rest of us doesn’t mean we
didn’t earn our way to have waterfront.
Taylor wants to take our waterways for
profit and give back nothing. This will
be the largest production in the world
on our little beautiful bay.
Katherine Clark
Shelton
Constituents’ wishes
Editor, the Journal,
I don’t care whether Taylor Shellfish
puts a floating oyster bag farm in Oak
land Bay. I do care whether the county
commissioners uphold their responsiu
bility as representatives of the people.
Interest in Taylor Shellfish’s pro—
posed project is so high that four hours
was not enough time to hear all public
comments at a hearing on the matter.
Mason County Hearing Examiner Phil
Olbrechts was there to remind every-
one that their opinions do not matter.
He said it was a quasi—judicial hearing,
so all that matters is whether the proj—
ect meets code.
Perhaps that was true for that par—
ticular hearing. But when a final deci—
sion is made, the will of the people is
by far more important than whether
the project meets code.
Our representative form of gov—
ernment is not working very well at
the state or national level, but we can
make it work locally. We’re fortunate
to still have a local newspaper carry-
ing out its role as government watch-
dog, enabling us to be an informed
citizenry.
Kudos to the people who showed up
to carry out their civic duty as citizens
of Mason County. The county commis—
sioners must now cariy out their civic
duty: to discover and implement the
wishes of their constituents.
Teresa Tsalaky
Shelton
Editor’s note: Charles Flanagan is
Steuens’ campaign manager
Vote for Stevens
Editor, the Journal,
Marcia Hamilton wrote and dispar—
agingly accused Superior Court can—
didate Dave Stevens of strong biases.
As his campaign manager, I think it’s
important that voters know Dave’s
biases. He believes very strongly that
the role of the courts is to protect the
rights of the accused and to protect
the safety of victims and the com-
munity. He strongly feels that Cadine
Ferguson—Brown’s embrace of equity
rather than equality undermines con-
fidence in our justice system. See her
panel participation in the Race and
Equity Summit 2023 put on by the
Up From Slavery Initiative. Check out
ufsi.org to see what their goals and bi—
ases are.
Ms. Hamilton also refers
to Dave’s interview by the Board of
Okanogan County Commissioners.
That interview was done because
the elected prosecutor had abruptly
resigned. As chief criminal deputy
prosecutor, Mr. Stevens was over-
whelmingly endorsed by the precinct
committee officers to fill in the vacant
position. I encourage you to listen to
the interview. You can find the in—
terview at youtu.be/p7jj34kthc. An
unbiased View of that interview shows
that Mr. Stevens has very strong'feel—
ings about criminals being held ac—
countable, if convicted. He has strong
feelings about protecting the commu—
nity. It certainly doesn’t show that he
has no interest in civil law. Ms. Hamil—
ton is correct in two things: 1) Cadine
F erguson—Brown was appointed by
Gov. Jay Inslee. Inslee clearly felt that
she shares his vision of how our judi~
ciary should be constituted and 2) she
is overwhelmingly endorsed by other
judges appointed by Jay Inslee. Dave
on the other hand is overwhelmingly
endorsed by Mason County law en-
forcement officers. Ask the officers you
know who they are voting for and why.
Vote for a judge who will be fair, firm
and just. Vote for Dave Stevens.
Charles Flanagan
Shelton
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